An Empirical Assessment of the GAM Theory of Creativity

ABSTRACT: Therivel (1993, 1998, 1999a, 1999b), in a series of articles, presented the GAM theory of creativity, which postulates that creativity is a function of genetics, assistances, and misfortunes. Two studies were undertaken to determine whether empirical data support this theory. In the first study, a sample of 529 undergraduate students completed a questionnaire designed to assess their creativity and the presence of anecdotal evidence regarding the three components of Therivel's theory. Two subsamples were formed of high creative (n = 40) and low creative (n = 38) individuals, and their scores on the three components were compared. In a second study, college students who were low on creativity but either high (n = 52) or low (n = 47) on academic achievement were identified and compared to the high creative individuals of Study 1 on the three components. In general, the results present at best modest support for Therivel's theory and no difference in applicability of the theory to creativity versus achievement.     

Social Concern and Delinquency: An Empirical Assessment of a Novel Theory

Using the Pathways to Desistance data, this study provides a test of Agnew’s social concern theory. Social concern is hypothesized to reduce criminality through four components: care about the welfare of others, desire for close ties, moral intuitions, and desire to conform. The analyses provide support for the theory’s core contentions. Care about others and moral intuitions are negatively associated with delinquency. Further, social concern partly mediates the effects of social learning, strain, social bond, self-control, and social support on delinquency. Findings indicate that social concern theory is a promising approach that merits continued theoretical refinement and empirical assessment.     

The Logic of Theory Assessment

This paper starts by indicating the analysis of Hempel’s conditions of adequacy for any relation of confirmation (Hempel, 1945) as presented in Huber (submitted). There I argue contra Carnap (1962, Section 87) that Hempel felt the need for two concepts of confirmation: one aiming at plausible theories and another aiming at informative theories. However, he also realized that these two concepts are conflicting, and he gave up the concept of confirmation aiming at informative theories. The main part of the paper consists in working out the claim that one can have Hempel’s cake and eat it too — in the sense that there is a logic of theory assessment that takes into account both of the two conflicting aspects of plausibility and informativeness. According to the semantics of this logic, α is an acceptable theory for evidence β if and only if α is both sufficiently plausible given β and sufficiently informative about β. This is spelt out in terms of ranking functions (Spohn, 1988) and shown to represent the syntactically specified notion of an assessment relation. The paper then compares these acceptability relations to explanatory and confirmatory consequence relations (Flach, 2000) as well as to nonmonotonic consequence relations (Kraus et al., 1990). It concludes by relating the plausibility-informativeness approach to Carnap’s positive relevance account, thereby shedding new light on Carnap’s analysis as well as solving another problem of confirmation theory. A precursor of this paper has appeared as “The Logic of Confirmation and Theory Assessment” in L. Běhounek & M. Bílková (eds.), The Logica Yearbook 2004, Prague: Filosofia, 2005, 161–176.     

价值观取向理论结构及实证

尝试用新的视角——取向研究视角,对价值观进行整合研究,建构一种与社会情境结合更紧密、更具概括性的价值观取向理论。价值观取向理论的假设结构模型包括四种价值观取向维度：社会取向,个人取向,积极取向和消极取向。根据理论模型编制价值观取向量表,以974名被试为研究对象,运用探索性因素分析和验证性因素分析方法对该理论模型进行实证研究。结果证明了该理论结构的存在,理论结构中各维度的因素负荷和拟合指数良好,价值观取向量表具有良好的信度和结构效度。     

An Empirical Assessment of Salesperson Motivation,Commitment, and Job Outcomes

This study contributes to the efforts to integrate work commitment constructs into the long-dominant expectancy theory framework of salesforce motivation and performance. Responses were gathered from 231 industrial salespeople in order to: 1) provide evidence concerning discriminant and convergent validity of two measures of work commitment and 2) distinguish expectancy and commitment constructs; and investigate the relationships between motivation, commitment, and two important outcomes—effort and performance. The results of the study indicate that conceptual and empirical differences do exist between commitment variables and expectancy-based motivation variables. Job commitment and extrinsic motivation are found to be related to salesperson effort, which in turn is related to salesperson performance.     

自我提升的利与弊：理论、实证及应用

自我提升的适应价值问题目前备受心理学家关注。进化与认知神经科学研究者认为自我提升在演化史中具有潜在的适应价值, 它具有生物遗传性; 而社会心理学家发现, 自我提升在现实中的表现是利弊参半的, 主要存在三种理论解释：调节因素论、生态比拟论、多维多功能模型; 临床咨询心理学家在实践中提出的发展适应性自我提升的建议, 有助于趋利避害地将自我提升加以应用。未来的研究将聚焦于测量的改进、文化、发展及内隐研究等领域。     

Motor intentionality and the case of Schneider

I argue that Merleau-Ponty’s use of the case of Schneider in his arguments for the existence of non-conconceptual and non-representational motor intentionality contains a problematic methodological ambiguity. Motor intentionality is both to be revealed by its perspicuous preservation and by its contrastive impairment in one and the same case. To resolve the resulting contradiction I suggest we emphasize the second of Merleau-Ponty’s two lines of argument. I argue that this interpretation is the one in best accordance both with Merleau-Ponty’s general methodology and with the empirical case of Schneider as it was described by Gelb and Goldstein.

Carl E. Schneider,The Practice of Autonomy: Patients,Doctors, and Medical Decisions

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics -     

The Simulation Theory,the Theory Theory and Folk Psychological Explanation

Philosophical Studies -     

Trying,Intentions, and the Processes by Which Goals Influence Performance: An Empirical Test of the Theory of Goal Pursuit1

A laboratory-based test of the theory of goal pursuit (Bagozzi & Warshaw, 1990) was conducted with results indicating substantial support for the theory. Goal attainment and task performance were predicted by a measure of trying, which was associated with the 4 mechanisms of effort, persistence, attention, and use of effective task strategies. Trying was predicted by an individual's intention to try. The intention to try was predicted by an attitude toward trying and a subjective norm toward trying. The individual's attitude toward the process and reactions to success and failure correlated with attitude toward trying. However, regression analyses indicated that the reactions toward failure did not contribute to the prediction of the attitude toward trying. Discussion focused on the utility of the theory of goal pursuit for understanding the processes by which goals influence performance.     

Conceptual and Empirical Perspectives on the Rorschach Assessment of Psychopathology

Conceptual and empirical perspectives on the Rorschach assessment of psychopathology are described and placed in a complementary perspective that stresses the value of conceptual formulations and the necessity of empirical data. Empiricism without concepts fails to explain adequately why Rorschach assessment yields useful information; conceptualization without empirical support fails to document adequately the psychometric soundness of Rorschach inferences. Used in tandem, explanatory concepts and supportive data enhance the scientific Stature and professional utility of Rorschach assessment.     

A Factor Structure of Wellness: Theory,Assessment, Analysis,and Practice

The Wheel of Wellness, a theoretical model of well‐being, incorporates 16 dimensions of healthy functioning that can be assessed using the Wellness Evaluation of Lifestyle (WEL; J. E. Myers, T. J. Sweeney, & J. M. Witmer, 1998). A series of studies are reported concerning the development and validation of the WEL based on a large database. In the current study, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of the items and scales revealed 5 primary factors of well‐being (Creative, Coping, Social, Essential, and Physical) and 1 superordinate factor identified as “Wellness.”     

Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Adolescents: Theory, Treatment Adaptations, and Empirical Outcomes

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) was originally developed for chronically suicidal adults with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and emotion dysregulation. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) indicate DBT is associated with improvements in problem behaviors, including suicide ideation and behavior, non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), attrition, and hospitalization. Positive outcomes with adults have prompted researchers to adapt DBT for adolescents. Given this interest in DBT for adolescents, it is important to review the theoretical rationale and the evidence base for this treatment and its adaptations. A solid theoretical foundation allows for adequate evaluation of content, structural, and developmental adaptations and provides a framework for understanding which symptoms or behaviors are expected to improve with treatment and why. We first summarize the adult DBT literature, including theory, treatment structure and content, and outcome research. Then, we review theoretical underpinnings, adaptations, and outcomes of DBT for adolescents. DBT has been adapted for adolescents with various psychiatric disorders (i.e., BPD, mood disorders, externalizing disorders, eating disorders, trichotillomania) and problem behaviors (i.e., suicide ideation and behavior, NSSI) across several settings (i.e., outpatient, day program, inpatient, residential, correctional facility). The rationale for using DBT with these adolescents rests in the common underlying dysfunction in emotion regulation among the aforementioned disorders and problem behaviors. Thus, the theoretical underpinnings of DBT suggest that this treatment is likely to be beneficial for adolescents with a broad array of emotion regulation difficulties, particularly underregulation of emotion resulting in behavioral excess. Results from open and quasi-experimental adolescent studies are promising; however, RCTs are sorely needed.